Liberal Forum

Rick Gates who is facing up to ten years in prison under a plea agreement for various fraud charges, testified in Stone's criminal trial on Tuesday, saying that the longtime Trump associate was telling the campaign about WikiLeaks' plans as early as April 2016, months before the DNC had announced it was hacked.

Stone is facing charges of lying to Congress about his role as an intermediary between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign. He has pleaded not guilty.

Gates testified that there were high-level campaign meetings to discuss WikiLeaks releases and that there was a "state of happiness" among aides over the damaging information about their rival.

"Any time that you’re in a campaign and damaging information comes out on your competitor, it’s helpful," he said.

A little over a week after WikiLeaks released the trove of DNC emails on July 22, 2016, Stone had a phone conversation with Trump.

Gates told the jury on Tuesday that the candidate "indicated that more information would be coming” after speaking with Stone.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... updates-on

SPECIAL COUNSEL’S OFFICE:

c. Are you aware of any communications during the campaign, directly or indirectly, between Roger Stone, Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, or Rick Gates and (a) WikiLeaks, (b) Julian Assange, (c) other representatives of WikiLeaks, (d) Guccifer 2.0, (e) representatives of Guccifer 2.0, or (f) representatives of DCLeaks? If yes, describe who provided you with this information, when you learned of the communications, and what you know about those communications.

TRUMP:

Response to Question II, Part (c): I do not recall being aware during the campaign of any communications between the individuals named in Question II (c) and anyone I understood to be a representative of WikiLeaks or any of the other individuals or entities referred to in the question.

https://apnews.com/98f22511be924ced895ce5c0bfedfe37